I read aninteresting theory yesterday, I'll try and find it again. Basically there was a warning issued last year that 777s may be susceptible to structural cracking at the GPS antenna. If this is true, and the fuselage cracked, it may have disabled their located system, depressurised the plane and caused it to act like Payne Stewart's from years ago.

Eh, the ocean's a big place. They'll find it eventually. As far as finding (no) survivors goes it's not like there's any rush. Obviously the biggest concern is that this could happen to other 777's, but that will still take a long time to figure out after the wreck is found.

I read aninteresting theory yesterday, I'll try and find it again. Basically there was a warning issued last year that 777s may be susceptible to structural cracking at the GPS antenna. If this is true, and the fuselage cracked, it may have disabled their located system, depressurised the plane and caused it to act like Payne Stewart's from years ago.

That accounts for everything except that MH plane doesn't have the SATCOM system under warning.

It was debunked both in those comments and the original Reddit, as I understand.

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Thanks for drawing attention to that. I check it out and yeah, that theory has some problems.

I do wonder if there might be some likelihood to the general possibility of an incident in which the transponder (and other tracking tools) was knocked out while also causing (rapid) decompression though. That would allow the plane to have remained structurally sound and continue on autopilot, while incapacitating the crew. I continue to have a hard time believing that IF the plane made it to the Malacca Strait area, it did so without any communications, unless the pilots were incapacitated or there was major enough damage that all communications were gone. (Although I'm inclined to think that the plane isn't in that region -- I still lean towards thinking it went down in the South China Sea).

It's certainly possible there was a slow decompression issue and oxygen was lost (hypoxia) faster than the plane depressurized to 14500 feet (when the oxygen masks would deploy). However, that would be a) the first time something like this has ever happened on a 777 plane of any type (I am aware of) and b) not known until the flight recorder/black box is recovered in all likelihood.

Just similarly to the new 787 Mitsubishi wing manufacturing issue (wings were noticed to be cracked on inspection after installation of the wings, which were now blamed by Mitsubishi as a "change in manufacturing process"), it only affects 42 brand-new, (possibly) not yet deployed planes and has no bearing on all of the 787s already currently in service. So there are variations in planes between different airlines even within the exact same plane group; so the SATCOM warning issued was only for certain kinds of 777s in service, not all of them.

The mystery over missing Malaysia Airlines flight 370 deepened Thursday as the Wall Street Journal reported that U.S. investigators suspect the jet stayed in the air for four hours past its last confirmed radar position.

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U.S. counterterrorism officials are pursuing the possibility that a pilot or someone else on board the plane may have diverted it toward an undisclosed location after intentionally turning off the jetliner's transponders to avoid radar detection, the newspaper reported, citing one person tracking the probe.The report suggests the Boeing 777 could have flown on for additional distance of about 2,200 miles, potentially reaching the border of Pakistan or as far as destinations in the Indian Ocean.It said the investigators were reviewed data automatically downloaded and sent to the ground from the Boeing Co 777's Rolls Royce engines as part of a standard monitoring program.The report came after a leading air safety investigator told NBC News on Wednesday that the hunt for MH370 is likely to turn into a criminal inquiry as mounting evidence points to a deliberate act.

If it was terrorism (the "theory" seems to suggest hostage taking), then why has no one claimed responsibility? I also have a hard time believing that hundreds of passengers and crew would just allow even the captain to divert the flight like that, seeing as how, you know, the last major act of terrorism on an airliner didn't involve landing safely.

If it was terrorism (the "theory" seems to suggest hostage taking), then why has no one claimed responsibility? I also have a hard time believing that hundreds of passengers and crew would just allow even the captain to divert the flight like that, seeing as how, you know, the last major act of terrorism on an airliner didn't involve landing safely.

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That's what I was thinking until I read this. The WSJ talks about taking the plane "with the intention of using it for a later purpose". So essentially, security in US/Europe to tight to hijack a plane the way they did on 9/11, so find one somewhere where the security is less stringent, and get lucky that the co-pilot apparently has been known to let passengers into the cockpit, and then use it some time down the road.

Pretty outlandish, to be sure, but at this point, the theory at least bears investigating.